China rolls out country-wide transport and logistics VAT

Thursday, August 01, 2013

A value-added tax (VAT) will be applied to transportation and logistics services throughout China, starting today, Aug. 1. “In 2012, China reformed its existing VAT system by integrating the business tax (BT) into the value added tax (VAT),” according to a memorandum provided to American Shipper by Zhen Xie, Carlos Rodriguez, and Robert Stang of the Washington office of law firm Husch Blackwell. The 2012 reforms were initially limited to Shanghai and gradually rolled out to another 10 regions, including Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Hubei, Guangdong, Xiamen and Shenzhen. In April, the Chinese government determined “the limited application of the VAT pilot distorted compe...